The Twins have been around since 1961. Not counting this year, that's 58 seasons of baseball. This version of the basement has been around since 2011, meaning we've been around 9 seasons, or about 16% of the Twins franchise.
Very strangely, only 7% of the Random Rewinds have been from a season where we've been baking things halfway in this basement. Something fishy is going on...
DON'T FORGET TO PUT IN YOUR SUMMER MIX NOMINATIONS!!!
(2 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
Loading... Date: Tuesday, August 2.
Batting stars: Michael Cuddyer was 2-for-4 with a double. Jason Kubel was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Alex Burnett pitched a perfect inning, striking out one. Matt Capps pitched a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Ervin Santana pitched a complete game, giving up one run on eight hits and two walks and striking out seven. He threw 121 pitches. Vernon Wells was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Peter Bourjos was 2-for-3 with a double. Mark Trumbo was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his twentieth. Torii Hunter was 1-for-4 with a home run, his fourteenth.
The game: The Angels started the scoring in the third. Bourjos led off with a double, was bunted to third, and scored on a ground out to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead. The Twins got the run back in the fourth, as Cuddyer led off with a double and scored on a pair of ground outs, making it 1-1.
The Angels took control in the fourth. Wells led off with a walk, Howie Kendrick doubled, and Trumbo hit a three-run homer to make it 4-1. The Twins had a threat in the fifth, as Delmon Young led off with a walk followed by a Tsuyoshi Nishioka single, but Denard Span hit into a double play to take them out of the inning. Hunter homered in the fifth to make it 5-1.
The Twins had one more threat, in the sixth, when Cuddyer and Kubel had one-out singles, but nothing came of it. They did not advance a man past first after that.
WP: Santana (7-8). LP: Brian Duensing (8-9). S: None.
Notes: Joe Mauer was behind the plate for this game, one of just 52 times he was able to catch. Drew Butera was actually the primary catcher, playing 93 games. Rene Rivera caught 44.
Cuddyer was at first base, as Justin Morneau was out due to injury. Morneau was able to play just 56 games at first base, with Cuddyer playing 46, Luke Hughes 36, Chris Parmelee 20, and Mauer 18.
Trevor Plouffe was at second base, as Alexi Casilla's season was effectively over due to injury. Casilla was able to play just 56 games at second base. Hughes played 37, Matt Tolbert 36, Cuddyer 17, Plouffe 17, and Brian Dinkelman 11.
Span was making his return to center field, having missed nearly two months due to injury. He was able to play just 67 games in center. Ben Revere played 89.
With Cuddyer at first base, Kubel was in right field.
Kubel was batting .306. He would finish at .273. Cuddyer was batting .300. He would finish at .284. Mauer would lead the team in batting at .287 in 333 plate appearances. The Twins finished eleventh in batting at .247.
Cuddyer led the team in home runs with 20. Then came Danny Valencia with 15, Jim Thome with 12, and Kubel with 12. The Twins finished last in home runs with 103. A Bomba Squad they were not.
Duensing pitched six innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out three. This would be his only season as a full-time starter. Scott Baker was the only good starter they had, at 8-6, 3.14, but he was only able to make 21 starts due to injuries. Carl Pavano made the most starts, 33, and went 9-13, 4.30. Nick Blackburn was 7-10, 4.49 and Francisco Liriano was 9-10, 5.09. The only other pitcher to make double-digit starts was Anthony Swarzak, who was 4-7, 4.32.
The 2011 team was really destroyed by injuries. I didn't even mention the injury to Nishioka or Joe Nathan's struggles trying to come back. Between guys playing out of position and guys who should have been in Rochester, it's no wonder they had a terrible year.
This was the last of a three-game losing streak. They would win the next day, then go on a six-game losing streak. Over the last two months of the season this team went 13-41.
Record: The Twins were 50-59, in fourth place in the American League Central, 8 games behind Detroit. They would finish 63-99, in fifth (last) place, 32 games behind Detroit.
The Angels were 60-50, in second place in the American League West, 1 game behind Texas. They would finish 86-76, in second place, 10 games behind Texas.
Random record: The Twins are 36-31 in Random Rewind games.
Bones Ely (1863)
Ed Wells (1900)
Dusty Boggess (1904)
Rosey Gilhousen (1913)
Herb Score (1933)
Roger Nelson (1944)
George Mitterwald (1945)
Don Money (1947)
Thurman Munson (1947)
Bobby Marcano (1951)
Bill Hohn (1955)
Tim Laudner (1958)
Heathcliff Slocumb (1966)
Donaldo Mendez (1978)
Virgil Vasquez (1982)
Mark Lowe (1983)
Dusty Boggess was a National League umpire from 1944-62.
Rosey Gilhousen was a long-time scout who is credit for signing George Brett and Dan Quisenberry.
Bobby Marcano was an all-star in Japan.
Bill Hohn was a major league umpire since 1989-99 and 2002-10.
Happy Prince Day, everyone.
NSFW
(1 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)Loading... Date: Friday, April 28.
Batting star: Shannon Stewart was 2-for-4.
Pitching stars: Matt Guerrier pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and three walks and striking out one. Jesse Crain struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.
Opposition stars: Nate Robertson struck out seven in seven shutout innings, giving up five hits and a walk. Marcus Thames was 3-for-4 with a home run (his third), a double, and a walk, scoring twice and driving in two. Ivan Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with a walk. Placido Polanco was 3-for-5 with two runs. Carlos Guillen was 2-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. Craig Monroe was 2-for-5 with two doubles. Chris Shelton was 1-for-4 with a home run (his tenth) and a walk.
The game: The Twins put men on first and second with one out in the first, but did not score. The Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the first on singles by Polanco, Rodriguez, and Magglio Ordonez, but could only get a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. The Twins got a two-out double from Michael Cuddyer in the second, but did not score. Thames hit a home run with one out in the second to make it 2-0 Detroit. The Twins opened the third with two singles, but did not score.
The Tigers then took control of the game. Singles by Polanco and Rodriguez and a walk to Ordonez loaded the bases with none out. Carlos Guillen hit a bases-clearing double. The bases were literally cleared, because Guillen was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple. Shelton then hit a home run and Monroe doubled, still all with none out. The Monroe double finally chased starter Brad Radke from the game, but by then it was 6-0 Detroit.
After all their early scoring threats, the Twins only once got a man past first after that. Tony Batista hit a one-out double in the seventh, but did not get past second base. The Tigers scored three more in the seventh. Doubles by Monroe and Thames plated one run. Curtis Granderson walked, Polanco had an RBI single, and walks to Rodriguez and Ordonez forced home the ninth run.
WP: Robertson (3-2). LP: Radke (2-3). S: None.
Notes: Mike Redmond was behind the plate in place of Joe Mauer, who missed a couple of days. Cuddyer was at first in place of Justin Morneau, who missed a couple of days. Juan Castro was the starting shortstop at the beginning of the season, later to be replaced by Jason Bartlett. Batista was the starting third baseman at the beginning of the season, later to be replaced by Nick Punto. Stewart was the starting left fielder at the beginning of the season, but injuries would force him out of the lineup. Lew Ford, who would take Stewart's place in left field, was in right in this game. Right field, of course, was normally the province of Cuddyer.
Despite the lopsided score, the Twins made only one non-pitcher substitution. Luis Rodriguez entered the game at first base in the eighth. Cuddyer went to right, Ford went to center, and Torii Hunter came out of the game.
The Twins had some really good batting averages early in the season. Redmond was batting .375--he would finish at .341. Rodriguez was batting .368--he would finish at .235. Castillo was batting .365--he would finish at .296. Stewart was batting .356--he would finish at .293. As alluded to earlier, he would also finish on the DL. Mauer, who did not play in this game, would bat .321.
There were also a couple of really bad batting averages early in the season. Rondell White was batting .145--he would finish at .246. Hunter was batting .190--he would finish at .278.
The Twins would lead the league in batting average at .287. They were next-to-last in home runs at 143. Morneau led the team with 34. Hunter had 31 and Cuddyer 24. Mauer was the only other player in double digits, with 13.
This was Radke's last season. He was no longer the ace of the staff, of course, but he was still usually a dependable pitcher. Not in this game, obviously--this was his lowest game score of the season. But he finished 12-9, 4.32, which you'll take in the rotation any time. The ace was Johan Santana (19-6, 2.77). Francisco Liriano joined the rotation in mid-May and pitched really well through the end of July, but then was able to make only two more starts. He went 12-3, 2.16. Boof Bonser joined the rotation in late May and went 7-6, 4.22. Others who made double-digit starts were Carlos Silva (11-15, 5.94) and Scott Baker (5-8, 6.37).
2006, as you probably remember, was the season the Twins stumbled and bumbled early in the year, then got hot and came back to win the division by one game over Detroit. It's really pretty amazing how they remade so much of the team on the fly, partly due to injuries and partly due to signing retreads who had to be replaced.
We haven't had a lot of rewind games where the Twins got blown out. This was the first game of a four-game losing streak. The Twins would get outscored in those four games 41-3. Game-by-game, it was 9-0, 18-1, 6-0, and 8-2. I suspect the game logs were not pretty.
Record: The Twins were 9-13, in fourth place in the American League Central, six games behind Chicago. They would finish 96-66, in first place, one game ahead of Detroit.
The Tigers were 14-9, in second place in the American League Central, 1.5 games behind Chicago. They would finish 95-67, in second place, one game behind Minnesota.
Random rewind: The Twins are 36-30 in Random Rewind games.
I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bad D-Day references on the streets tonight.
Ed McKean (1864)
Fresco Thompson (1902)
Bill Dickey (1907)
Wild Bill Wright (1914)
Hector Espino (1939)
Merv Rettenmund (1943)
Bud Harrelson (1944)
Bobby Randall (1948)
Dave Bergman (1953)
Max Venable (1957)
Tony Graffanino (1972)
Brooks Kieschnick (1972)
David Lamb (1975)
Mark Ellis (1977)
Jeremy Affeldt (1979)
Matt Belisle (1980)
Wild Bill Wright was a star in the Negro Leagues in the 1930s and 1940s.
Hector Espino is considered the greatest player in the history of the Mexican League, hitting 453 home runs there.
Stay safe this weekend, citizens!
2 Jan 1982
(3 votes, average: 9.67 out of 10)Loading... 
